SafeNet partners cautiously upbeat as Gemalto moves in

Channel partners hopeful $890m acquisition completed last week will boost rather than deflate sales

Partners of encryption and two-factor authentication vendor SafeNet have given its acquisition by Gemalto a tenative thumbs up.

The acquisition by the French vendor, which was initially announced in August, will see Gemalto swallow the Vector Capital-backed data and software protection vendor SafeNet for $890m (£589m).

Gemalto and SafeNet were both named by Gartner as leaders in its Magic Quadrant for user authentication in 2014, with SafeNet holding the leader position for the fourth year running, according to the analyst.

Gemalto is the world's biggest supplier of SIM cards and provides software applications internationally, along with secure personal devices.

Robert Campbell, managing director at data encryption and authentication reseller Ecommnet, which is partnered with SafeNet, said he at first worried that the acquisition would hinder the growth of his business.

"My initial reaction was 'oh no, we have just refocused down the security marketplace, we are going to see a major slowdown in business, or participation in business development from the vendor'," he said.

"But I was assured that that wouldn't happen, and that it would be relatively trouble free. As long as they live up to that, I am reasonably confident that what we are going to get from the acquisition is more opportunity from them, rather than less."

Campbell commented that the Gemalto product range adds to the SafeNet portfolio and is "pretty complementary".

He also said he understood that SafeNet is set to remain a relatively autonomous business, and he would like to see some of Gemalto's products made available to him.

Kevin Hefferon, operations manager at SafeNet partner P&C Communications, said he felt optimistic about the acquisition.

"Overall I think the acquisition is going to be positive going forward," he commented.

One SafeNet partner, who did not wish to be named, said he was unsure if the acquisition will be good or bad for his business.

"We have witnessed and been affected by the transfer of what were Aladdin products to SafeNet and Secure Computing products to McAfee over a number of years, and the outcome has been diverse; advantageous to us on occasion, and sometimes not," he said.

"While we welcome a renewed focus on product from a new vendor, we can't possibly look into the future to know if the acquisition will benefit us or affect the marketplace."

Gemalto said the acquisition will reinforce its identity and access management business.

"The opportunity to acquire SafeNet has come at exactly the right time, as we have just entered into our new multi-year development plan and there is a perfect fit between Gemalto's 'security at the edge' and SafeNet's 'security at the core' capabilities," chief executive Olivier Piou said when the deal was first announced.

"This will enable us to further accelerate the deployment of strong security solutions in the enterprise sector, and expand our technologies and growth opportunities in protecting online access. Overall, our global leadership in digital security will be reinforced."